On February 14, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited the Criminal Executive Service of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia to participate in the discussion of the activity report 2023 of the Service.
The Head of the Criminal Executive Service, Colonel of Justice Ambakum Grigoryan and the deputy heads presented the works done, the recorded achievements, as well as the comparative analysis of the indicators recorded during the reporting period and previous years. Deputy Minister of Justice Levon Balyan referred to the works in the direction of digitalization in the field of the Criminal Executive Service.
It was reported that the Service’s budget was implemented by 99.79%.
Within the framework of the fight against crime, 1122 crime reports were submitted by the central body of the Service and the operative units of the penitentiary institutions, criminal proceedings were initiated over 489 reports, including 3 – corruption crimes, 146 – drug trafficking. 36 people were arrested by operative department employees, 3 of them were Criminal Executive Service employees, and 32 were citizens.
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During 2023, 1496 mobile phones, about 912 grams and 607 pieces of narcotic drugs, about 1600 liters of self-made alcoholic beverages and other prohibited items were found in the penal institutions.
149 internal investigations were conducted, as a result, different types of penalties were applied to 137 employees.
In fulfillment of the instructions of the Prime Minister, from July 1, 2023 convicts are escorted to places of execution of procedural actions by the Criminal Executive Service. For this purpose, the Criminal Executive Service was equipped with new vehicles that meet international standards.
During the reporting period, 35 out of 36 points of the strategy of the Penitentiary and Probation Sector were fully implemented, and 1 was partially implemented.
Prime Minister Pashinyan noted that a noisy incident took place when the officers of the Criminal Executive Service escorted the detained person home. In this regard, the Prime Minister asked, “Are we now sure that measures have been taken against all those responsible for that incident?”
In response, Minister of Justice Grigor Minasyan stated: “Yes, Mr. Prime Minister. The head of the particular penitentiary no longer works at the Criminal Executive Service, and the lower level guards have been removed from the structure. We also had a problem with the content of that permission granted by the judge, which is also a subject of examination, because a very odd two-hour segment, so to speak, was omitted by the court itself, which we are studying to understand whether that was a common practice or not, because our monitoring of the Criminal Executive Service showed that it was a unique case.”
Nikol Pashinyan asked how many similar cases were recorded in 2023. The Minister reported that the above was the only exceptional case.
“The important nuance is as follows: I want us to assess the situation correctly, if there is such a practice, it should be stopped very strictly, because it first of all shapes people’s attitude towards the state and the legal system. In other words, in fact, our legislation provides for a vacation for the detained person, if there are such needs, because objective needs may arise for the detained person to go home, there are prison visiting rooms, etc., of course, with some restrictions provided by law. This is provided by law, if there is an objective need for such cases. In other words, it is very important here that it forms an attitude towards the law and legality in general, and it is not about a personalized approach at all. In the end, we should be able to form an attitude towards the legal system, that the law should work, especially since the legislation provides such opportunities and it is not allowed that the state’s credit and rating are constantly under attack in all possible places, even with the motivation to do good things. In other words, doing favors at the expense of the state’s reputation is absolutely unacceptable, especially in flagrant violation of the law,” stressed Prime Minister Pashinyan.
It was reported to the Prime Minister that the package for the construction of a new prison based on the German model was transferred to the Urban Development Committee, a tender was announced, and there is a winning organization that will submit the design and estimate documents by November 2024.
Within the framework of ensuring the education of persons deprived of their freedom, the right of 10 minors to receive compulsory education was realized. According to the new law, a general education program regardless of age was implemented in correctional facilities, in which 138 people participated (a sharp increase compared to 2022: 92 people in 2022).
The higher and post-graduate education of 8 imprisoned persons was ensured.
Non-formal educational programs were implemented, within which an increase was also recorded compared to 2022 (in 2023: 185 people, in 2022: 140 people).
During 2023, 382 convicts or 34% of the total number of convicts were involved in labor employment, 117 in technical maintenance works, 137 in unpaid works of improvement of the territory, 15 – with other employers on contractual basis, 113 – in creative works.
The Prime Minister inquired about the number of women and minors in penitentiary institutions.
It was reported that only women and minors are kept in “Abovyan” prison, currently there are two minors, 40 detainees and 21 female convicts.
It was reported that in cooperation with international organizations, the development and pilot implementation of a tool for assessing the needs and risks of convicts was carried out.
In cooperation with the US Embassy and the Armenian office of the “International Organization for the Development of Law”, the pilot program of public defender-trustee communication via video call was implemented for the first time in the “Armavir” correctional facility.
The works carried out in 2023 in the direction of improving the building conditions of the correctional facilities were presented.
Reference was also made to the building improvement works planned for 2024. Among other works, a new building for 216 incarcerated persons will be built in “Sevan” correctional facility. The design package has already been purchased.
It was also reported that it is planned to modernize the security system of correctional facilities. For this purpose, non-contact micromillimeter instantaneous scanning devices will be acquired, low-dose X-ray systems will also be introduced, in addition to scanners that scan personal belongings and food carts. Weapons, narcotics, mobile phones, liquid, powder, etc. can be detected with the help of new equipment.
It is also planned to create a single digital domain, where there will be complete information about the person, from the arrest to the final place of serving the sentence, the corresponding cell of the penitentiary.
In this domain, all the information about the incarcerated person will be collected in the information database of the Criminal Executive Service, which will ensure the exchange of information with other concerned authorities, for example, court, prison, health authorities, etc.
It was reported that it is planned to introduce the module “Personal Office of Prisoners”, where all information about the course of detention or punishment will be collected, for example, the conclusion on the risk and needs assessment, the individual resocialization plan, penalties, incentives, medical interventions, food-related information, participation in resocialization activities, negative tendencies and other such information.
In order to ensure the effective use of the Personal Office module, it is recommended to integrate the information database of the Criminal Executive Service with the information databases of all interested bodies, for example, the electronic medical platform, the criminal court, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Probation Service, etc.
Referring to the digitization process, the Prime Minister noted. “The main instruction is that, in general, our digital modules, what we create, should take into account that new needs may arise and new modules may need to be added. In other words, today we have come up to this idea, we have launched these processes, tomorrow a new need may arise. We must order all our programs in this context. By the way, convey this instruction to the Digitalization Council.
Imagine, let’s say, we have decided that we need to digitize these processes, now we have done a different analysis: we don’t know how well we did, how badly we did, or at the next moment an action may be necessary, and we should not go and say, ok, this is not included the program, now we have to write a new program, instead, we should create an opportunity to add one more function to that program.”
The Prime Minister inquired whether the traceability of the detained or convicted persons is planned in that process.
The Minister of Justice reported that the issue of traceability, for example, was solved by the introduction of GPS equipment in the Enforcement Service. The same can be done here.
Nikol Pashinyan noted, “With this, aren’t we also solving the problem that an arrested or convicted person is in this cell, then he was transferred to another cell, then he went for an appointment, then for interrogation, etc., he went to the court and came back? In other words, I think that traceability is not a big complication, it can be solved.”
In compliance with the Prime Minister’s order, a certification system was introduced to the Criminal Executive Service. At present, the work on the development of the certification procedure is underway, it is planned to start in April 2024.
The ways of modernizing the fight against the criminal subculture were presented. it is planned to develop a draft of amendments to the Criminal Code and provide for criminal liability for transferring any means of communication to imprisoned persons, and for acquiring and keeping such means by imprisoned persons.
INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT OF THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA